IMMERSION AND YOU: THE DO'S AND DON'TS

An article on the concept of immersion and how to successfully implement it into a game.

Creating a world can be a daunting task for just about anybody. A world, at its base level, is comprised of many systems going on all at once.

Then we have games. A game creator is forced to consider a number of options when putting together a project. Amongst the most difficult techniques is the idea of immersion.

What is it that draws the player into the world presented before them? The pretty graphics? Or maybe it was those quirky characters from the intro of the game?

Hell, maybe it's the atmosphere the player has been exposed to since they booted the game up on their computer? In order to answer this question, let's take a step back and actually review the importance of immersion.

Importance Of ImmersionImmersion is the act of becoming entranced with the story or game presented before you. One often picks up books or turns on a game in order to be told a story. This feels almost like a form of escapism for some individuals.

The reason why we want to be immersed into a story is simple. We want to be entertained. We want to be taken away from our current reality and set off on an adventure in a far away land.

We want to explore a new world, overcome dangerous odds, and conquer. Players like to succeed. I repeat, players like to succeed!

I cannot stress enough how important it is for a player to succeed in their conquest. If a player is consistently frustrated, this will bring them out of their immersion. They will remember that this is a game, and an unfair one at that.

Naturally, we don't want our players to just delete our games due to their frustration. We want them to continue the game. How do we do this?

Immersion.

Then tell us how to do it already!Immersion is achieved through the following:

1. Mood And Setting
2. Dialogue
3. Music
4. Pacing
5. Game Play
6. Balance
7. A Sense Of Realism

Let's try and explain each one of these.

1. Mood/Setting - The general feeling of either a scene or the work as a whole. I grouped the setting in with the mood, because it often impacts a scene. For instance, how would you feel if you saw people inhabiting a slum discussing how great life is?

You'd be somewhat taken aback. This is not the attitude you would expect people to have in a destitute broken down environment. If you do something like this, you better have one hell of a justification for it. Characters, much like people in real life, have reason for their feelings.

To the prospective designer, it is your duty to keep this in mind. Especially if your game involves multiple character interactions. This conveniently brings us to our next point.

2. Dialogue - How do your characters talk? Typically, we don't expect young children to consistently say words over 8 letters unless we're dealing with a child genius.

Make the dialogue fit the characters age and allow the region to impact the dialogue. Not everybody speaks the same. Dialect, or accents, are a recurring element with people. You can make them region specific or limited to specific characters.

Dialogue is important. If done wrong, the player is at risk of being snapped out of the immersion.

Here is a quick sample:

Wise Sage: U guys are bunch of N00bs.

That sentence is atrocious, broken, and idiotic. If your game is meant to be taken seriously, do not do sentences like that. No one talks like that and that seriously detracts the player's immersion towards the game.

3. Music - The instrumental or song playing in the background. This should go without saying. Our purpose in using music is to help set the tone of a scene.

For instance, cheery sounding music should not be played during a final boss fight. Fighting music should not randomly play when the player character is sleeping at an inn (unless they're being attack at said inn).

The music assists in setting the mood. You know what else it is used for? Pacing.

4. Pacing - The speed of either a scene or the story itself. One of the most important elements of any game, especially towards immersion.

The rate at which a characters says their dialogue, character speed, music, rate/difficulty of gameplay, and the way the plot moves is our basis for pacing.

If the player is to be emotionally invested in a game, then pacing is a must. Doing too much, too fast, may take away from the immersion. However, moving the player along at a slug's pace also impedes the aforementioned idea.

5. Game Play - This ties in with both pacing and balance.

How often do we control our character? What is the rate of control? This is the pacing aspect of gaming. The balance aspect is the difficulty. Do not make a game way too hard. Pissing off the player is going to remind them that they're playing a game and may be enough to have them delete the game.

This is not to say that a game is not allowed to have difficult moments. Tough sections are to be expected, but with reason. If you make a section next to impossible, the player may give up. Proceed with caution should you try that.

6. Balance - Expected pacing and difficulty. That is to say the pacing and difficulty is never too high or too low at any given moment.

7. A Sense Of Realism - The way we expect everything to act. As stated early, characters are driven by motivation. The more we learn about a character, the more we expect a character to act a certain way.

This is not to say that characters cannot change their motivations and act differently. However, if you have a character do something they would never do normally, justify it. In doing this, you may actually change the character permanently.

Be warned that realism is, without a doubt, the most important aspect of immersion. In fantasy, anything can happen. However, once you've established your rules, you can't break them on a whim.

An audience has a limit to their suspension of disbelief. Do not try and push your luck too much with changing the rules. If the player feels cheated, you risk setting them up to quit playing your game.

The Conclusion Already!Consistency is your best friend with immersion. When we expect things to go a certain way, we get hopes our up. Naturally, not everyone gets what they want. That's why it is the designers job to provide a believable experience for the player and craft a well-written story.

This rewards our investment in playing the game and allows for our enjoyment.

Best of luck and happy game-making.

Posts

Most of the points you cover seems to apply to good game design period rather than immersion. I agree with all the points, but I don't know why this is an article about immersion rather than good game design.

author=CrystalgateMost of the points you cover seems to apply to good game design period rather than immersion. I agree with all the points, but I don't know why this is an article about immersion rather than good game design.

When dealing with immersion in regards to games, good game design is a must. It doesn't make sense to discuss immersion in games without good game design as a focus. Nonetheless, thanks for reading my article and I am glad you at least agreed with it.

Yet you cared enough to reply to the dude. The article was only meant to give the reader a general idea of immersion. Wouldn't you agree that most mistakes are often common sense issues that are overlooked?

What led you to the conclusion that my article lacked focus? I listed the very things that should be utilized in order to achieve immersion. The article had a coherent structure that focused on what needed to be done for immersion.

what is this... kindergarden? no, i cared enough to want more out of you.

The problem is that the way you define immersion is just... making a good game. It's semantics but immersion usually relates to realism/atmosphere which you barely mention along with general stuff. While you're at it, you end up listing most of the points with 2 or 3 sentences each without bothering to elaborate. It's just too vague and game design in general isn't that simple. If you're willing to tackle such a broad issue... actually explain these points more, actually convince people that your points are true, give good examples. That is if you're willing to turn this into a general "mistakes people should avoid" article or something, because I'm not seeing this "immersion" quite clearly.

You go from saying you shouldn't write noob speak and then saying you shouldn't use happy music in a dark setting in just a few sentences WELL NO SHIT tell the reader something that will make that stick. honestly dude i could probably sum up your article with "make your game good if you want good immersion"

Hey let me explain why i think I'm right about this by providing an example and backing it up. http://rpgmaker.net/articles/343/ this article is broad too but the author limits it to 5 points and keeps them constructive, in 2. he makes a very good point that every word should count, he explains in detail why a paticular cutscene in xenogears could have been completely cut out because he felt it was useless to the overall story. He quotes analyses and hammers it into your head that yeah this is just ONE cutscene in some old ps1 game but it relates to a very big problem in RPG writing: people write too much bullshit and need to know how to cut things out.

http://rpgmaker.net/articles/9/ right from the article title you already know what this is about. There's no dancing around the bush he's trying to convince people to stop making hour long intros with shit no one cares about. Brickroad goes at great length to analyse the different types of intros and what goes through the players mind and motivation when starting up the game for the first time. He finally concludes that if most games are about playing you should probably keep the intro to as close as nil as possible. This article and it's ideas have stuck with me for a really long time, everytime i make an intro for whatever game I probably won't finish I instinctly think: "how do i give out the premise in less than a minute?" I'm not saying you should write this article to be more memorable but GIVE OUT SOMETHING PEOPLE CAN THINK ABOUT.

Either elaborate on the article or just write about something a little smaller and focused aka just realism and mood/setting. Like idk dude this article barely scratches anything. What point are you trying to get across? no i dont mean "good immersion/game design" I mean REALLY what are you trying to say that will improve someone's game? everyone obviously wants to do that but you need to get more under the skin.

what is this... kindergarden? no, i cared enough to want more out of you.

The problem is that the way you define immersion is just... making a good game. It's semantics but immersion usually relates to realism/atmosphere which you barely mention along with general stuff. While you're at it, you end up listing most of the points with 2 or 3 sentences each without bothering to elaborate. It's just too vague and game design in general isn't that simple. If you're willing to tackle such a broad issue... actually explain these points more, actually convince people that your points are true, give good examples. That is if you're willing to turn this into a general "mistakes people should avoid" article or something, because I'm not seeing this "immersion" quite clearly.

You go from saying you shouldn't write noob speak and then saying you shouldn't use happy music in a dark setting in just a few sentences WELL NO SHIT tell the reader something that will make that stick. honestly dude i could probably sum up your article with "make your game good if you want good immersion"

Hey let me explain why i think I'm right about this by providing an example and backing it up. http://rpgmaker.net/articles/343/ this article is broad too but the author limits it to 5 points and keeps them constructive, in 2. he makes a very good point that every word should count, he explains in detail why a paticular cutscene in xenogears could have been completely cut out because he felt it was useless to the overall story. He quotes analyses and hammers it into your head that yeah this is just ONE cutscene in some old ps1 game but it relates to a very big problem in RPG writing: people write too much bullshit and need to know how to cut things out.

http://rpgmaker.net/articles/9/ right from the article title you already know what this is about. There's no dancing around the bush he's trying to convince people to stop making hour long intros with shit no one cares about. Brickroad goes at great length to analyse the different types of intros and what goes through the players mind and motivation when starting up the game for the first time. He finally concludes that if most games are about playing you should probably keep the intro to as close as nil as possible. This article and it's ideas have stuck with me for a really long time, everytime i make an intro for whatever game I probably won't finish I instinctly think: "how do i give out the premise in less than a minute?" I'm not saying you should write this article to be more memorable but GIVE OUT SOMETHING PEOPLE CAN THINK ABOUT.

Either elaborate on the article or just write about something a little smaller and focused aka just realism and mood/setting. Like idk dude this article barely scratches anything. What point are you trying to get across? no i dont mean "good immersion/game design" I mean REALLY what are you trying to say that will improve someone's game? everyone obviously wants to do that but you need to get more under the skin.

you could've just posted this the first time and avoided this whole situation. :/

And while this article does only touch the tip of the iceberg, I still think it can leave developers with something to think about.

author=BareGamerIt touches on both immersion and gameplay. Good article.

and expect me to write a detailed post from the get go? seriously wtf. I thought it would be clear that the article lacked focus and yet you can't even explain why this article is worth anything more than a collection of vague tips. lol yup "still think it can leave developers to think about" great response. like why bother posting in the first place??

You know, I'll delete the article soon. Sorry if it's not to the standard you expected. My article barely scratched the surface of anything? Last time I checked, I was listing the elements of immersion and very briefly how to implement them.

But you know what? You win. I'll scrap this article and churn out a new one soon enough. Sorry if it doesn't match up to your standards.

Also, some personal advice to you, Darken. There's no need to be rude to people over their opinions.

Anyway, I appreciate the advice and you'll get what you want. A deleted article that will soon be replaced by, as you say it, a memorable one to leave something for the player to think about.

You know, I'll delete the article soon. Sorry if it's not to the standard you expected. My article barely scratched the surface of anything? Last time I checked, I was listing the elements of immersion and very briefly how to implement them.

But you know what? You win. I'll scrap this article and churn out a new one soon enough. Sorry if it doesn't match up to your standards.

Also, some personal advice to you, Darken. There's no need to be rude to people over their opinions.

Anyway, I appreciate the advice and you'll get what you want. A deleted article that will soon be replaced by, as you say it, a memorable one to leave something for the player to think about.

Nah don't delete your article. Just if you write another one about something else, make sure you pitch in as much as you can. That's all anyone can ask. :)

Although Darken might have lacked tact, I totally support his points.
This article provides basic advice for beginner developers, but it is aimed more towards realism and generic design than immersion. In my opinion, you just didn't present it right.

I also disagree that realism is, as you say, the most important aspect of immersion. Surrealistic and Tetrist games, for instance, can fuel immersion too.
Immersion is actually created by the player, not by the game itself, because it is a state of mind. A game, as any other work of art, can only suggest and hope to fuel immersion through its features and content. What will appeal as immersive to one player might not be for another one.

author=darkloadAlso, some personal advice to you, Darken. There's no need to be rude to people over their opinions.

uh tell that to BareGamer? he shat on my opinion for no reason. i have not insulted you or your article. BUT FEEL FREE TO PAINT ME AS THE VILLAIN.

If you serious about deleting the article don't, just write a better article next time preferably something to smaller scale. honestly i don't think your writing skill is at fault, more like the choice of stuff you chose to talk about.

author=darkloadAlso, some personal advice to you, Darken. There's no need to be rude to people over their opinions.

uh tell that to BareGamer? he shat on my opinion for no reason. i have not insulted you or your article. BUT FEEL FREE TO PAINT ME AS THE VILLAIN.

If you serious about deleting the article don't, just write a better article next time preferably something to smaller scale. honestly i don't think your writing skill is at fault, more like the choice of stuff you chose to talk about.

I'm not trying to portray anyone as the villain. I won't delete the article. You're right you know. I will compose a better article next time.

Sorry if I've seemed edgy with you at any point. I appreciate the criticism. It'll help me make a better article next time.